Christians often act like they are
“going to a funeral procession
rather than to praise God,” Pope
Francis declared, urging
believers to spend time praising
God so they are not slaves to
their sorrows.
“You here at Mass,” the Pope
said in the chapel of St.
Martha’s House, “do you give
praise to God or do you only
petition God and thank God?
“Do you praise God?” he
repeated, pointing out that this
“is something new, new in our
new spiritual life.”
Anticipating a common excuse
for not praising God, he said,
“‘this Mass is so long!’”
“If you do not praise God, you
will never know the gratuity of
spending time praising God, the
Mass is long. But if you go with
this attitude of joy, of praise to
God, that is beautiful! This is
what eternity will be: giving
praise to God! And that will not
be boring; it will be beautiful!
This joy makes us free,” Pope
Francis said in his May 31
homily.
He based his words on the daily
readings, one from the prophet
Zephaniah and the other from
Luke’s Gospel, which recounted
Mary visiting her cousin
Elizabeth.
The Old Testament reading
contains the exclamation
“Rejoice! Cries of joy, the Lord
is in your midst,” while the
story of Mary’s visit recalls how
John the Baptist “rejoices” in
Elizabeth’s womb when he
hears Mary’s greeting.
Both of the readings speak of
joy, “the joy that is
celebration,” the Pope said.
But “we Christians are not so
accustomed to speak of joy, of
happiness. … I think often we
prefer to complain,” he stated.
“Without joy,” he added, “we
Christians cannot become free,
we become slaves to our
sorrows. The great Paul VI said
that you cannot advance the
Gospel with sad, hopeless,
discouraged Christians. You
cannot.”
Being joyful “comes from
praise, Mary’s praise, this praise
that Zephaniah speaks of,
Simeon and Anna’s praise: this
praise of God!” the Pope
preached.
Through the guidance of the
Holy Spirit, who is “the author
of joy, the Creator of joy,” Pope
Francis said that Christians
learn to praise and become
joyful, which leads to “true
Christian freedom.”
He finished his homily by
pointing to Mary as the model
of “this praise” and “this joy.”
“The Church,” the Pope noted,
“calls her the ‘cause of our joy,’
Cause Nostrae Letitiae. Why?
Because she brings the greatest
joy that is Jesus.”
“We need to pray to Our Lady,
so that by bringing Jesus she
gives us the grace of joy, the joy
of freedom. That it gives us the
grace to praise, to praise with a
prayer of gratuitous praise,
because he is worthy of praise,
always.”